To make it look more 'upmarket' so to speak. Mazda really wants to make people see that this is a genuine competitor to the Golf and the A3, and what better way to do that if they add some more 'european' luxuries such as leather?

For 21,545 dollars it is a bargain. The sales manager said that this was a marketing test to see if Mazda will make this a regular option package for 06. He said that there would not be very many of them and that delevery of the rest of them had been held up because of the mudslides in Calif. That they were on the transport ship waiting to be unloaded and that all the ones on the ship were all that are going to be available.

I would not mind spending my daily commutes in that interior, especially for just a little over 21K. See, you can offer luxury touches like these without thinking you're automatically a luxury car maker **cough**VW**cough**. Hope this doesn't go to their heads and the next concept we see from Mazda is a Phaeton clone.